Fishing is often accomplished by using a fishing pole, line, fishing hook, and bait attached to the fishing hook. When fishing is done in this manner, smells associated with the baiting of the hook may cause problems. One problem is that when the bait, such as salmon eggs or worms, are handled by human hands in baiting the hook, human smells may be transferred to the bait in this way. Fish are known to be quite sensitive to scents in the water and are likely to be scared away by the smell of human hands transferred to the bait. Conversely, smells may be transferred from the bait to the human being during the baiting of the hook by conventional manual methods. In addition, germs, bacteria, slime, and other matter may be transferred from the bait to the human being resulting in a cleanliness problem.
Various solutions to these problems of smell and cleanliness have been attempted in the past. Gloves have been used to prevent the transfer of scents and of matter between the human hands and the bait. However, gloves add another layer to an already delicate operation and add to the awkwardness of the operation. In addition, gloves themselves will pick up smells both from the human being and from the bait, thus eventually transferring the smells themselves. At some point, therefore, the gloves will need to be washed or discarded. Another solution which has been tried is simply that of washing the hands before and/or after baiting the hook. This solution may be effective depending on how thoroughly the hands are washed. However, this solution does raise the problem of maintaining clean water to wash the hands, and also adds another step to each baiting of the hook.